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Adam Geers, Breckenridge Facility Manager of Michigan Agricultural Commodities, gives a tour of the soybean processing facility for attendees of a Michigan Soybean Promotional Committee statewide tour on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018. M.A.C. has been impacted by lowered prices of GMO soybeans, of which the facility receives 2.5 million bushels each year.

Breckenridge soybean plant feels tariff's impact

Sales opportunities limited by dispute

Adam Geers, Breckenridge Facility Manager of Michigan Agricultural Commodities, gives a tour of the soybean processing facility for attendees of a Michigan Soybean Promotional Committee statewide tour on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018. M.A.C. has been impacted by lowered prices of GMO soybeans, of which the facility receives 2.5 million bushels each year.

Trade disputes among the U.S. and China have made impacts down to soybean plants in places like Gratiot County.

"It has limited our sales opportunities because some of the end users we ship to are exporters. With the trade dispute, they're not exporting beans," said Adam Geers, Breckenridge Facility Manager of Michigan Agricultural Commodities, on Tuesday. Geers gave a tour of the M.A.C. facility for attendees on a statewide tour stop with the Michigan Soybean Promotional Committee.

Approximately 2.5 million bushels a year of GMO soybeans are received by M.A.C. from farmers in mid-Michigan in the fall of each year and are shipped throughout the following year to places across the U.S., Geers said.

Prices on Genetically-Modified Organism soybeans have dropped to $7.50 per bushel since springtime this year, when it was $9.50 per bushel, he said. The facility in Breckenridge receives 2.5 million bushels each year. A bushel of soybeans is 60 pounds.

However, this price drop has not changed the way M.A.C. does business or its day-to-day operations, Geers said.

"M.A.C. is well positioned to withstand the ups and downs of the market," he said. "Everyone would rather have the market freely trade, as it gives a more accurate price reflection."

In July, the U.S. put $34 billion worth of tariffs on goods exported to China, including a 25 percent import tariff on U.S. soybeans. This tariff reduced the price soybean growers ultimately receive on their products, according to Geers.

"That's been the largest impact on American farmers," he said. "That is a hindrance to the company we ship to for export. We're not exporting beans as a result of the tariff, to my knowledge."

Non-GMO soybeans at M.A.C. are not impacted by the trade disputes because they do not go to China. The company ships these soybeans mainly to Japan and the United Kingdom for tofu manufacturing, which it has done since 2014, Geers said.

The company's seven facilities around Michigan are expected to handle nearly 10 percent - or 10.5 million bushels - of the state's 105 million bushel crop expected this year, he said.

In Ithaca, work continues on the Zeeland Farm Services soybean processing plant, which is being developed to handle approximately 40 percent of the state's annual soybean bushel crop.

The tour went through the processing steps for the soybeans.

There are six different varieties of non-GMO soybeans received from local growers.

The soybeans are received in bins, then go through a cleaning process to remove things such as stems, pods and stones.

After this, they are put into totes that weigh a metric ton, or 2,204.62 pounds, which are then loaded into containers and shipped overseas.

There were approximately 200,000 bushels shipped last year out of the Breckenridge facility.

Even with the trade disputes driving prices down, the facility is expected to double its shipping capacity this year, Geers said.

"We have more varieties to offer growers," said Geers, who said there were only two varieties offered last year.

The tour - the first of its kind - had approximately 25 people on it, mainly farmers in the soybean industry, said Gail Frahm, executive director of the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee and Michigan Soybean Association.